Wine and Cholesterol

The French drink red wine. They drink red wine, and they eat those wonderful creamy pastries. They drink red wine, and there is an entire dinner course of cheese. They drink red wine, and they eat those buttery croissants with added butter, cheese, or nice big pieces of red meat or pork sausage. The French drink red wine and, even with all of the rich cholesterol-producing foods that they consume, their cholesterol levels are lower than those in the rest of the civilized world. Do you see a pattern here?

Scientists have determined that the saponins found in red wine are what cause the health benefits that are apparently brought about by the consumption of red wine. Andrew Waterhouse, Ph.D., Professor of Enology at the University of California at Davis and an expert in wine chemistry, says, “Saponins are a hot new food ingredient. People are just starting to pay attention to it. The Saponins’ presence in wine adds to the mounting evidence that red wine really may make a difference in lowering your cholesterol.”

Wow! Red wine as medicine! Who knew? Saponins have been found in a lot of other foods, too, like olive oil and soybeans. Desert plants like the yucca and quillaja have even higher levels of this beneficial chemical. Scientific studies have proven that saponins affect the inflammation pathways. This is really medically exciting news, since it could have implications in heart disease and cancer.

Remember that the magic (saponins) is in red wine. They aren’t in white wine in anywhere near the levels of red wine. Champagne isn’t rich in saponins, either. Red wine! The next time that you are sharing a bottle of wonderful red wine with your friends, tell all of them that you are collectively fighting high cholesterol and maybe heart disease and cancer as well.